Forwarded from: William Knowles <wkc4i.org>

http://www.kinston.com/Details.cfm?StoryID=7749

[Ohhh, yeah, someone needs to point out to the folks in Greene County,
North Carolina Marcus Ranum's idea of a 100% secure firewall
http://www.ranum.com/pubs/a1fwall/ :) - WK]

By Sandy Wall
Sandy_Walllink.freedom.com
Staff Writer
12/19/2002

SNOW HILL - Greene County officials hope a newly installed "firewall"
will prevent hackers from again disabling the county's computer
system.

An unidentified hacker tapped into the county's e-mail server last
week and wreaked havoc on the system, causing e-mail to arrive in
French and German, and eventually crashing the system.

"Nothing was ruined, and we didn't lose anything," said County Manager
E. Lee Worsley Jr., who said several county employees use the e-mail
system to do their jobs.

Greene officials, with the assistance of a computer service
contractor, were able to remedy the problem on their own.

Led by county systems manager Lisa Artis, the group installed a
"firewall," which is a software device that makes it difficult for
unauthorized users to tap into a computer system.

The repairs were completed last week. By this week, the e-mail system
was working again. Cost of the repairs was estimated at $700.

"I didn't let the e-mail go back up until the firewall was installed,"
Worsley said. He said the system was working well, but also
acknowledged that it's difficult to prevent all conceivable hacker
attacks.

 
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